Pinehurst, NC – The Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour traveled to historic Pine Needles in Pinehurst, NC for the season-ending Tour Championship, where the year-long Order of Merit points race would be awarded.
The Order of Merit trophy needed no introduction to Riley Grimm (Pinehurst, NC 2028), her name is already etched into it twice.
The Order of Merit is the season-long points race for each division on the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Tour similar to the PGA Tour’s Fedex Cup or LPGA Tour’s Race to CME Globe. PKBGT players earn Order of Merit points throughout the season at National Series tournaments with their top-five point earning events counting towards the standings. The number of points available in each event is adjusted based on number of players in the field, historical strength of the field, and the classification of the tournament. The trophy rewards players for their sustained success over the entire season.
In 2022, Grimm lapped the Futures National division winning four events including three majors: the PKBGT Masters, PKBGT Open, and Precision Jr. Girls on her way to winning the Futures National Order of Merit title. The following year, she found immediate success after moving up to the Prep Preview division, winning three more major championships: the 10th PKBGT National Tournament of Champions, PKBGT Masters, and PKBGT Open on her way to the 2023 Prep Preview Order of Merit victory.
The 2024 PKBGT National season was her first full season in the Bell National division and she, unsurprisingly, continued her superb play! Grimm started the season with back-to-back runner-up finishes at the 15th PKBGT Invitational and the 11th National Tournament of Champions before securing her first Bell National victory at the PKB Foundation Classic in January. Throughout the remainder of the season, she would add two more runner-ups finishes, an additional two more top-10 finishes, as well as a victory at the inaugural LPGA*USGA Girls Golf National Championship at Pine Needles. Grimm’s consistently great play gave her a strong lead entering the final event of the season: The PKBGT Tour Championship at Pine Needles.
Heading to Pine Needles, where Grimm had just won a National title six weeks prior, Riley could mathematically only be caught in the Order of Merit standings by Macie Rasmussen (Chesapeake, VA 2027). Rasmussen had a fantastic 2024 season as well with seven top-10 finishes including two victories, highlighted by a six-shot victory at the 15th PKBGT Invitational. In order for Rasmussen to catch Grimm, she would need to win and Grimm to finish worse than a tie for second.
At the Tour Championship, Riley would finish in third place at 218 strokes and Rasmussen finished one shot behind at 219 in a tie for fourth. The result meant Grimm had accomplished the rare three-peat: winning the Futures National, Prep Preview, and Bell National Order of Merit title’s in consecutive years.
Grimm joins Amanda Sambach as the only players in the history of the PKBGT to achieve this feat. Amanda Sambach completed it from 2015-2017. Sambach is recognized as one of the most successful players in tour history with 21 tournament wins including 10 at the Bell National level. She would also win the Bell National Order of Merit titles in 2018 & 2019.
Next season in 2025, Riley will look to join Sambach’s company again as players with back-to-back Bell National Order of Merit titles (Katherine Perry and Lucia Polo accomplished this as well). But until then, she will celebrate her impressive 2024 season!
About the PKBGT
Founded in 2007 by the Triad Youth Golf Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, as a local girls’ golf tour in the Triad region of North Carolina, the tour began as a simple concept: create more effective competitive playing opportunities for girls. By utilizing innovative yardage-based divisions instead of the traditional age-based format, the tour focused on developing tournament experience at the player’s pace. The 2022 season will feature over 138 tournaments in 12+ states and with over 1,000 members, the PKBGT is the largest girl’s only tour in the country. Learn more about the PKBGT at http://www.pkbgt.org/.
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